The Continuing Woes of A VW Owner
Things are still not well in Volkswagen land. New Sudbury Volkswagen (NSVW) has been giving me plenty of grief in trying to get my car repaired. Enough grief that I actually rescinded my recommendation to a friend to purchase a VW.
The Monday after the accident I made all the calls I needed to my insurance company. Since I'm 28 and never had an accident or traffic infraction (in Canada *cough cough*) I'm considered a 9-star driver which entitled me to a "free" accident without incurring a rate increase. My insurance also includes rental coverage so I figured I was set. I went into NSVW to get a quick estimate on the damage. The service manager figured it would be at least $3000 to replace the bumper, front grille, and headlight, but until he took the car apart he wouldn't be able to tell the full extent of the damage. Later that week we heard from the claims appraiser and arranged to have him view the car at NSVW. So on the following Monday I was supposed to drop off the car and there would be a rental car waiting for me.
Monday was a stressful day to start with because I was involved in providing some training for all our principals. I was out of the office providing support for the presenter of the main project I was hired for. Once the principals were settled and the presenter was starting into the talk I snuck out to drive across town to NSVW. When I got there, to my horror, there was no car waiting for me. The guy who was supposed to arrange the rental apparently forgot to and was now on vacation for three weeks. To her credit the receptionist at NSVW did her best to try and find me a rental and even offered to drive me to a rental place herself, but either way it was going to be 45 minutes at the least before I got a car. So as politely as I could I took my keys back and told her I'd be back tomorrow to make the car exchange. She wasn't too impressed because they had already set up the appointment with the claims appraiser, but at that moment I didn't care. They messed up and I needed my car so they could deal with the claims appraiser.
Tuesday I dropped off my car and a shuttle was waiting for me to bring me to National Car Rental. Once the shuttle dropped me off the receptionist at National had no record of a car being reserved for me. So again NSVW didn't come through with their promise. National gave me a pretty dinged up car that smelled of cigarette smoke which did not impress me in the least. I didn't say anything cause I needed to get back to work since I was on borrowed time at that point.
Come Friday morning I get a call from NSVW to let me know that my car is ready. So during my lunch break I get out to National, turn in my car which only cost me $9 for the gas, and the shuffle brought me to NSVW. The receptionist I had dealt with the other day was lunch and the other receptionist didn't know anything about what was going on. She didn't even know how much my deductible was let alone what they did to fix my car. She asked me to call back later and talk to the other receptionist. Which I did but she didn't know what they did to my car either and told me to call back on Monday to talk to the body-shop guy. And on top of that I had asked to get a block-heater put in my car which they didn't do back in November because of a broken tool, and still didn't do because of the same excuse nine months later. But my car was fixed with a nice new shinny bumped so I figured all was right again in VW land.
After work I went to Lesley's and on our way out to dinner I noticed something was wrong with the front end of the car. The grille was sitting too low, leaving a noticeable gap between the grille and the hood. I popped the hood and it looked like the grille had slide down and had a noticeable bend in the middle where maybe they forced it on. I was pretty shocked, but I still gave them the benefit of the doubt that maybe things don't fit well anymore after the accident and my car was "scarred". But I was definitely going to call them Monday morning. Then on Saturday night Lesley and I were out for dinner with Steve and Leah when I went to show them the gap after we ate. Someone left me a present by dinging my bumper, on the same corner as the accident, hard enough to crack the side turning light and knock it out of place, leaving it hanging on a wire. Luckily I was able to snap it back into place leaving me with just the scratches on the side of the bumper.
On Monday I called and it turns out my new grille is on back order so NSVW decided to put my old grille back on my car without telling me. I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt still, but that's just plain bad business. I mean how is that going to look other than they tried to make a quick buck off of me and the insurance company by putting the old grille back on. Two weeks later I still hadn't heard from NSVW so I went there after work this past Monday figuring a phone call wouldn't be enough. The service manager was finally back from vacation and said he noticed that my grille was still on back-order and was going to phone around. I told him they didn't tell me that they put the old grille back on, but he didn't react much to that. Or the fact that he forgot to arrange the rental. He called me on Tuesday to say they found a grille in L.A. and it's on its way. I'm guessing I won't hear from them again until tomorrow (Friday) and apparently they finally replaced their block-heater tool which means I'll have to leave the car there for a day again.
So yeah..... I am totally unimpressed and frustrated with the level of service I am getting from NSVW. They are the only VW dealer/shop in town so I guess they feel they can get away with this kind of treatment. I'm not entirely sure what to do because I'm not good at standing up for myself. I'm the kind of guy that always thinks about how I should have gone off the handle after the fact. Would it be wrong to demand some form of compensation? What would be reasonable? I just don't know, cause at this point it will take a lot for them to redeem themselves. I do know I won't be so eager to recommend a VW if it's going to be purchased and serviced at New Sudbury Volkswagen.
Matthew.
The Monday after the accident I made all the calls I needed to my insurance company. Since I'm 28 and never had an accident or traffic infraction (in Canada *cough cough*) I'm considered a 9-star driver which entitled me to a "free" accident without incurring a rate increase. My insurance also includes rental coverage so I figured I was set. I went into NSVW to get a quick estimate on the damage. The service manager figured it would be at least $3000 to replace the bumper, front grille, and headlight, but until he took the car apart he wouldn't be able to tell the full extent of the damage. Later that week we heard from the claims appraiser and arranged to have him view the car at NSVW. So on the following Monday I was supposed to drop off the car and there would be a rental car waiting for me.
Monday was a stressful day to start with because I was involved in providing some training for all our principals. I was out of the office providing support for the presenter of the main project I was hired for. Once the principals were settled and the presenter was starting into the talk I snuck out to drive across town to NSVW. When I got there, to my horror, there was no car waiting for me. The guy who was supposed to arrange the rental apparently forgot to and was now on vacation for three weeks. To her credit the receptionist at NSVW did her best to try and find me a rental and even offered to drive me to a rental place herself, but either way it was going to be 45 minutes at the least before I got a car. So as politely as I could I took my keys back and told her I'd be back tomorrow to make the car exchange. She wasn't too impressed because they had already set up the appointment with the claims appraiser, but at that moment I didn't care. They messed up and I needed my car so they could deal with the claims appraiser.
Tuesday I dropped off my car and a shuttle was waiting for me to bring me to National Car Rental. Once the shuttle dropped me off the receptionist at National had no record of a car being reserved for me. So again NSVW didn't come through with their promise. National gave me a pretty dinged up car that smelled of cigarette smoke which did not impress me in the least. I didn't say anything cause I needed to get back to work since I was on borrowed time at that point.
Come Friday morning I get a call from NSVW to let me know that my car is ready. So during my lunch break I get out to National, turn in my car which only cost me $9 for the gas, and the shuffle brought me to NSVW. The receptionist I had dealt with the other day was lunch and the other receptionist didn't know anything about what was going on. She didn't even know how much my deductible was let alone what they did to fix my car. She asked me to call back later and talk to the other receptionist. Which I did but she didn't know what they did to my car either and told me to call back on Monday to talk to the body-shop guy. And on top of that I had asked to get a block-heater put in my car which they didn't do back in November because of a broken tool, and still didn't do because of the same excuse nine months later. But my car was fixed with a nice new shinny bumped so I figured all was right again in VW land.
After work I went to Lesley's and on our way out to dinner I noticed something was wrong with the front end of the car. The grille was sitting too low, leaving a noticeable gap between the grille and the hood. I popped the hood and it looked like the grille had slide down and had a noticeable bend in the middle where maybe they forced it on. I was pretty shocked, but I still gave them the benefit of the doubt that maybe things don't fit well anymore after the accident and my car was "scarred". But I was definitely going to call them Monday morning. Then on Saturday night Lesley and I were out for dinner with Steve and Leah when I went to show them the gap after we ate. Someone left me a present by dinging my bumper, on the same corner as the accident, hard enough to crack the side turning light and knock it out of place, leaving it hanging on a wire. Luckily I was able to snap it back into place leaving me with just the scratches on the side of the bumper.
On Monday I called and it turns out my new grille is on back order so NSVW decided to put my old grille back on my car without telling me. I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt still, but that's just plain bad business. I mean how is that going to look other than they tried to make a quick buck off of me and the insurance company by putting the old grille back on. Two weeks later I still hadn't heard from NSVW so I went there after work this past Monday figuring a phone call wouldn't be enough. The service manager was finally back from vacation and said he noticed that my grille was still on back-order and was going to phone around. I told him they didn't tell me that they put the old grille back on, but he didn't react much to that. Or the fact that he forgot to arrange the rental. He called me on Tuesday to say they found a grille in L.A. and it's on its way. I'm guessing I won't hear from them again until tomorrow (Friday) and apparently they finally replaced their block-heater tool which means I'll have to leave the car there for a day again.
So yeah..... I am totally unimpressed and frustrated with the level of service I am getting from NSVW. They are the only VW dealer/shop in town so I guess they feel they can get away with this kind of treatment. I'm not entirely sure what to do because I'm not good at standing up for myself. I'm the kind of guy that always thinks about how I should have gone off the handle after the fact. Would it be wrong to demand some form of compensation? What would be reasonable? I just don't know, cause at this point it will take a lot for them to redeem themselves. I do know I won't be so eager to recommend a VW if it's going to be purchased and serviced at New Sudbury Volkswagen.
Matthew.
2 Comments:
That is terrible service. I know what you mean about not being able to confront people and later thinking of things you wished you'd thought to say. An option is to write a letter outlining the whole story, sending it to NSVW and maybe cc'ing it to the head of Volkswagen. I looked up NSVW's website. You could use a quote from the Service & Parts section telling how they haven't delivered on the promise that "Our state-of-the-art facility features the most current diagnostic and repair equipment available, and our factory-trained technicians will deliver the most efficient and quality vehicle car". End with being disappointed and not recommending them.
-j
By
Anonymous, at 9:35 AM
Dude, that is not good!
Maybe you've got some relatives that could make them an offer they can't refuse?
Still praying and hoping things will brighten up!
tobs
By
Toby, at 9:37 PM
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